POP LIFE: Kronos Quartet to play Halifax

San Francisco-based group one of many performances scheduled for 2017-18 season

The Kronos Quartet is scheduled to perform in Halifax, as part of the Symphony Nova Scotia concert season, on Jan. 17. (Contributed)

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; The Symphony Nova Scotia 2017-18 season offers an eclectic range of performances, but for me one concert leaps out &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;mdash; the Kronos Quartet.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; The San Francisco-based string quartet &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;mdash; violinists David Harrington and John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt and cellist Sunny Yang &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;mdash; are scheduled to perform on Jan. 17, 2018.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; The Kronos Quartet have released an exceptional range of music since the group&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;rsquo;s formation in 1973 &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;mdash; 47 albums for the Nonesuch Records label alone, including this year&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;rsquo;s Folk Songs. This album unites the Kronos Quartet with vocalists Rhiannon Giddens, Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney and 10,000 Maniacs&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;rsquo; Natalie Merchant to perform a selection of English, Irish and French traditional songs.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; It&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;rsquo;s a career that has embraced genres and composers from Thelonious Monk to Steve Reich, as well as collaborations diverse as Nelly Furtado and Nine Inch Nails. The 2005 album You&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;ve Stolen My Heart-Songs from R.D. Burman&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;rsquo;s Bollywood combined both pursuits by featuring the Hindi playback singer Asha Bhosle.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;iframe allowfullscreen=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; frameborder=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;0&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; height=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;315&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; src=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;https://www.youtube.com/embed/KVjSeAeHBIk?rel=0&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot; width=&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;560&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;quot;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

The Symphony Nova Scotia 2017-18 season offers an eclectic range of performances, but for me one concert leaps out — the Kronos Quartet.

The San Francisco-based string quartet — violinists David Harrington and John Sherba, violist Hank Dutt and cellist Sunny Yang — are scheduled to perform on Jan. 17, 2018.

The Kronos Quartet have released an exceptional range of music since the group’s formation in 1973 — 47 albums for the Nonesuch Records label alone, including this year’s Folk Songs. This album unites the Kronos Quartet with vocalists Rhiannon Giddens, Sam Amidon, Olivia Chaney and 10,000 Maniacs’ Natalie Merchant to perform a selection of English, Irish and French traditional songs.

It’s a career that has embraced genres and composers from Thelonious Monk to Steve Reich, as well as collaborations diverse as Nelly Furtado and Nine Inch Nails. The 2005 album You've Stolen My Heart-Songs from R.D. Burman’s Bollywood combined both pursuits by featuring the Hindi playback singer Asha Bhosle.

The Symphony Nova Scotia concert will feature material from New York composer Philip Glass, Syrian Omar Souleyman, Canadian Nicole Lizée and — as a wild card — the Who’s Pete Townshend.

The concert presents another opportunity. For a long time I’ve been flying solo at concerts — moving back to Nova Scotia with a young family often made it easier to trade off with my better half for a night out.

Music obsessives like me need to be reminded that just because you like more music does not mean you like music more.

My partner proves the point for me — cherry-picking favourites from my musical excess. For her, Ginger Baker’s Middle Passage or Crowded House’s Woodface should be found in every good home, even if the general public gravitated toward Paula Abdul and Michael Bolton at the time.

Now our two kids are older, so it seemed appropriate for the two of us to ring in the New Year with a musical night out.

Booking details on the Dalhousie Arts Centre’s Box Office website upped the stakes — a reasonably priced under 30/student deal was available. For the first time, a full family concert outing seemed viable.

Our oldest and I saw the Cirque du Soleil Saltimbanco show at the Halifax Metro Centre in 2007. At just short of four years old, they gasped when the lights went down, offering a new perspective on the concert-going experience.

In 2014 the Halifax Jazz Festival staged a show by Mavis Staples. The Grammy award winner started her career at age 11 with father Roebuck “Pops” Staples, sister Cleotha and brother Pervis, later replaced by sister Yvonne, as the Staple Singers. The group were a gospel music dynasty for three decades, crossing over with hits like Respect Yourself and Let’s Do It Again.

I was happily spouting off about the show when my oldest asked, “Can we go together?”

It seemed to be a suitable first concert for an 11-year-old — Staples’ history with Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil rights movement appealed to a growing interest in social justice. Staples had been revitalized by her collaborations with Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy on the albums You Are Not Alone and One True Vine, so there was little risk of the show being weighed down by its own history.

Again, the trappings of a concert — the stage lighting at the Rebecca Cohn Auditorium or the eye-catching spangled shirt worn by the opener Erin Costelo — captivated as much as Staples’ rousing performance.

I discussed the event with a good friend of mine, an aficionado of music from South Asian Qawwali to Bulgarian folk and all points in between. He still treasured his memory of his first concert with his dad in 1986 — the legendary Ravi Shankar at the Rebecca Cohn.

The Mavis Staples show was more than a pleasant night out, I realized — it was an opportunity to help shape a child’s musical tastes, just as the Ravi Shankar show did for my friend, who grew up to be the type who shared my appreciation for the Kronos Quartet’s work with Burman and Bhosle.

Now, finding the right concert for my youngest seems like a serious proposition. The budding guitar player couldn’t be persuaded to consider Bruce Cockburn, which seems reasonable for an 11-year-old.

I considered the Brian Wilson Pet Sounds concert as her inaugural event, but I worried Wilson’s combination of presence and absence onstage might strike her as sad. But as Wilson band member Probyn Gregory switched from guitar to tannerin to trombone, I wished she was there. She recently added trombone to her guitar and violin studies — I wanted to say that could be her onstage someday.

If Katy Perry ever makes her way to Halifax, I have to face the prospect that I might be another tag-along dad in the Scotiabank Centre. I’m not afraid though — I’ve seen Hanson.

The Kronos Quartet, with their love of music and capacity to explore so many elements of it, may connect with all four of us.

No matter what, the paths to a life with music are being established for our children — and they already go in many directions.

Our oldest is eager to share discoveries with me — YouTube phenomenons like Glass Animals or Melanie Martinez. When Martinez quotes Lesley Gore’s It’s My Party on her 2015 single Pity Party, it’s no cue for me to say it’s all been done. Instead, it leads to an introduction to Gore’s You Don’t Own Me, a 1963 pre-feminist anthem.

Our youngest still curls up on the couch so we can explore together. When we watched the video for Faith, the exuberant duet by Stevie Wonder and Ariana Grande from the 2016 film Sing, she helpfully identified the 24-year-old Grande for her dear old dad. In turn I identified Grande’s partner.